Opinion

Newton Emerson: Tory rebellion puts spotlight on Sinn Fein's abstentionist policy

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson writes a twice-weekly column for The Irish News and is a regular commentator on current affairs on radio and television.

Newton Emerson
Newton Emerson Newton Emerson

The Tory rebellion in the Commons has major long-term implications for Northern Ireland, as it greatly increases the prospect of a very soft Brexit. In the meantime, it puts the DUP and Sinn Féin in fascinating positions.

The unionist party becomes even more important to propping up the British government - if every Labour MP had showed up to vote this week, the DUP and Tories combined would have had a majority of two. That makes Sinn Féin’s seven MPs decisive. Tory rebels might never ally with them to bring down the government or stop Brexit entirely but there is no question Sinn Féin can now mitigate Brexit by taking its Westminster seats, with the added bonus of knocking the DUP of its perch. Everyone in Northern Ireland understands Sinn Féin’s commitment to abstentionism and constitutional interest in the worst Brexit imaginable. But how will such cynicism play in the Republic, where Brexit is seen simply as a disaster to be minimised?

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Last weekend’s wobble over the Brexit deal reveals considerable confusion over how much ‘regulatory alignment’ each side thinks they have agreed. Brussels and Dublin seem to believe the deal applies to all single market and customs union rules, with alignment potentially extending across the whole UK. The British government says the deal only applies to the limited number of areas of north-south cooperation specified in the Good Friday Agreement, adding that the 140-plus areas its own research has identified are just “subsets” of the above. In further confusion, London keeps referring to “the six” areas of cooperation, although the 1998 Agreement proposes 12. There are six north-south implementation bodies, most covering several policy areas, but they are not listed in the agreement - they merely arose from consideration of the 12 proposed areas.

Such imprecision when referring to what is effectively Northern Ireland’s constitution is not a reassuring sign.

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Prof John Brewer, of Queen’s University Belfast’s Institute of Conflict Transformation, raised eyebrows across the media three years ago when he denounced a BBC Spotlight investigation as “conflict journalism” and told BBC managers “some things need to be kept secret.” Now it seems he has become even more discerning, tweeting: “Peace processes are too important to be left to politicians, they have no vision and are too adversarial.” How long before Prof Brewer narrows the acceptable field of public life down to academics named John?

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Unionists in Ards and North Down Borough Council have proposed that security force veterans be given extra points for social housing, an idea presumably inspired by the military covenant. One DUP councillor has moved an amendment to include Irish army personnel for equality reasons. It is all grandstanding of course, as councils do not run the housing points system. The puzzle is why Northern Ireland has never copied the key worker scheme for social housing common to local governments across England. This covers most frontline public sector workers, including “Ministry of Defence personnel” - so unionist councillors could still embark on the argument they are trying to start.

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More schools have warned they may close early on Wednesdays due to financial pressures - but how much money would this save? Teachers are salaried, their wages are the bulk of school costs and they do not get a pay cut for working two hours less a week. Switching lights and heating off for the same length of time would be trivial economising. The real constraint on schools staying open is the strike that has stopped teachers working extra hours for the past year. The real saving from early closure is on ancillary staff, who are paid hourly or by piece rate and can have their already low wages cut at a stroke.

Solidarity, comrade.

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Crumlin International Airport has put a “Welcome to Westeros” banner in arrivals to capitalise on Game of Thrones tourism. Anyone not in the medieval mood may feel differently once they have trekked through the mud in the unsurfaced car park and handed over some gold to rejoin the Belfast turnpike.

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The DUP has been very careful over the past six months to avoid social policy positions in Westminster that would further antagonise liberal England and embarrass its Tory partners. However, Strangford MP Jim Shannon could not resist a seasonal foray into classic culture war politics, putting down a motion with the support of party colleagues “to keep the Christ in Christmas”. Shannon toned it down a bit from last year, when he tabled a motion defending “the right of every person in this country to use the phrase Happy Christmas” - but it all amounts to the same dog-whistle of Christians being under secular and multicultural attack. There are occasional headlines in UK papers about councils ‘cancelling Christmas’. To the extent that these stories are ever true, they always involve some clipboard-wielding idiot taking pre-emptive offence on behalf of religious minorities, who are invariably horrified by the needless damage to community relations, as they would never dream objecting to Christmas in any way. Perhaps Shannon can put that in next year’s motion.

newton@irishnews.com